Individual Life History and Song Repertoire Changes in a Colony of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

Abstract

International audienceObservations were made over two years in a small colony of starlings to look at possible changes in the songs of each male, taking into account its life-history and breeding status. Each male sings two categories of song: warbling, a long, complex and mainly individual song, and loud and simple whistles. Within the latter, some are species-specific whereas others characterize the individual in its colony. Over two years very few changes were observed for the species-specific whistle themes and all birds shared the same variant. But the birds changed their individual whistle types almost completely from one year to the next. Changes in warbling song may depend on age: one bird changed his repertoire of motifs completely between his first and second year of life, whereas other older males merely added some new motifs to their repertoire of the previous year. Such results show that adult starlings in the wild, even older birds (7 years old), may still be able to acquire new structures. The new elements appeared in the fall and were kept at least until the following breeding season. All songs were very stable throughout a given breeding season. Although individual repertoires increased with age, large differences in repertoire size were found in same age individuals. First data suggest that breeding status (e.g. polygyny) and repertoire size may be related

Song in an Affiliative Context Relates to the Neural Expression of Dopamine- and Neurotensin-Related Genes in Male European Starlings

“…This study examined neural gene expression associated with a form of undirected communication that is important for vocal learning [Adret-Hausberger et al, 1990; Chaiken et al, 1994] and group maintenance [Eens, 1997; Hausberger et al, 1995] in adult starlings. The data highlight relationships between DA- and NT-related genes in Area X and VTA and undirected song.…”

Functional changes between seasons in the male songbird auditory forebrain

“…The use of these two types of songs varies according to the breeding status, with for example a decrease in species-specific whistles when male starlings succeed in breeding (Henry et al, 1994). However, and although whistling activity and warbling sequences' organization show seasonal variations, no seasonal variation has been observed in the acoustic structure of either the whistles or the warbling motifs (Adret-Hausberger, 1984; Adret-Hausberger and Jenkins, 1988; Adret-Hausberger et al, 1990). Starlings' communication system therefore provides a unique opportunity to test whether brain processing of the same song changes with the season (and hence with the behavioral relevance of this song).…”

Song-associated reward correlates with endocannabinoid-related gene expression in male European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris )

“…Although the precise functions of undirected song may vary across species, this type of communication is facilitated by the presence of conspecifics (Jesse and Riebel, 2012); for example, starlings produce high rates of song during the nonbreeding season while in large affiliative flocks (Feare, 1984). This communication is proposed to maintain social groups (Hausberger et al, 1995; Eens, 1997) and is important for song learning and maintenance (Adret-Hausberger et al, 1990; Böhner et al, 1990; Chaiken et al, 1994; Kao et al, 2005). Females may use male undirected song to assess potential mates (Holveck and Riebel, 2007), but, unlike female-directed song, undirected songs are not accompanied by courtship displays or followed by mating (Morris, 1954; Sossinka and Böhner, 1980).…”